Nobody really wants to linger much longer on the season just past, do you? Didn’t think so. So here are some abridged versions of player grades, to close out the whole mess. (And here’s a link to the full versions of each player):

Tomas Fleischmann: A – He had 21 points in the 22 games he played with the Avs. Enough said.

Erik Johnson: B-minus – Did some good things, but the real test is this coming season.

Jay McClement: D – Didn’t play well after coming from the Blues. Needs to find a role with team.

Phillipe Dupuis: C-plus – Not a lot of offense, but hustled hard and had good attitude.

Ryan Wilson: C -Too many nights, he was just kind of there and not much more. Had a couple good moments though.

TJ Galiardi: D – Just a year “Gally” will want to forget. Was hurt most of year and struggled when he did play.

Matt Hunwick: C-minus – He was brutal in his first few weeks, but I thought started to settle down toward end.

Greg Mauldin: B -Played very well at times for the Avs. Surprising when he was sent back to minors.

Ryan O’Byrne: C-plus – Started taking a lot of penalties in the second half, which hurt team.

Mark Olver: A-minus – Really played hard when given the chance and put some numbers on the board.

Kyle Cumiskey: C – Injured most of year, but he did post eight points in 18 games.

Adam Foote: C – Injured half the year. Not a great way to go out, but it was a great career.

Jonas Holos: C – Started strong, but played poorly much of the second half.

Kyle Quincey: D – Had only one point and a minus-5 in the 21 games he played before getting hurt.

David Koci: C-plus – He played well as a defenseman toward the end.

Cameron Gaunce: C – One point and a minus-3 in 11 games, but has some potential.

Peter Forsberg: B-minus – I know he didn’t get a point and was a minus-4 in his two games, but he could have had three or four points if teammates could have shot the puck!

Brian Elliott: C – That might be a generous grade, but he did have a couple of outstanding games. Yeah, some real bad ones too.

GM Sherman: C – Made some good trades early on (Fleischmann for Hannan), but jury is still out on the big one later with St. Louis, and the Blues clearly won the rest of the season based on the results.

If you’re an Avalanche season-ticket holder (and I’m talking to all 112 of you here, OK cheap shot, moving on) Wednesday at 11 a.m. is your chance to give some “feedback” or “suggestions” or “anything else you might want to say” to general manager Greg Sherman and new executive adviser Joe Sakic in a “teleconference.”

The logo above, by the way, is the current team slogan.

I’m not going to put the phone number to call in for the event, because it’s supposed to be for season-ticket holders only. So, you know who you are and have already been notified of it.

Some questions I would anticipate will come from the fandom (and the answers I can imagine will be given, followed by what I believe is the real truth):

– What’s up with the goaltending situation? Are you guys gonna spend some cash on July 1? (“We always keep all our options open. We’ll do what’s best for the hockey club” – “Are you kidding, we still have a big-box TV from Sears, circa 1999, for our JumboTron”).

– What was the rationale for trading Craig Anderson? (“We’ve moved on from that situation. It’s all about the future and we’re confident about our goaltending” – “He turned down our first and only offer, we got mad at that, then he couldn’t bail out our bad defense again so we shipped him out”).

– Are there any second thoughts about the Stewart-Shattenkirk-Johnson trade? (“Not at all. We’re very confident we’ve solidified a big part of our blue line for the next 10-15 years” – “Is the Pope Catholic? Did you see those numbers by Stewy and Shatty after the deal?”).

– How safe is Joe Sacco’s job entering next year? (“Very safe. He was a coach-of-the-year finalist two years ago” – “But we told him, ‘might want to rent, not buy, for the first half of next season.'”)

– Is Josh Kroenke involved in the decision-making process of the Avalanche going forward? (“Very much so. The Kroenkes are very much committed to the day-to-day success of the Colorado Avalanche.” – “Who?”).

Very nice day at the Pepsi Center. Avs get Adam Foote a win in his final game, good crowd, lots of nostalgia and shaking of hands and “have a good summer” and just one big happy bowl of humanity at the Can.

I could go all Scrooge here, but I won’t. Well maybe a little: I’ll just say this: the Avs are on the clock. Soon enough that will be the case at the draft in St. Paul, and when next season starts, the clock will start on the excuses that were – in my book – too easily bandied about in the final two months. If you listened around the building today, the entire reason for the Avs’ 5-26-2 finish to the final 33 began and ended with injuries.

Of course, we all agree with some of that. Injuries played a big role in the record. But I didn’t hear enough accountability today for my taste otherwise. Basically, the Avs need to be fully healthy to be any good, we were told too often in the final two months. Otherwise, it’s just too tough to overcome.

OK, fine. But next year? Nothing is going to work as an excuse. Nothing. If the same number of injuries occur, then the Avs have to find players who don’t get hurt as much. If it’s always about the players who aren’t on the ice, then the Avs need to change management and come up with a philosophy where it’s about the players who are on the ice.

They’re on the clock.

– – – – – – – – – – –
Above is a picture of Adam Foote officially doing his last interview, in the hallway outside the Avs’ dressing room. Below is a video of his next-to-last:

I’ll miss Foote. He is a genuinely good person, who really matured a lot as a player. He was a lot more hot-headed and emotional as a younger player, sometimes with the media. As the years went by, he was the sage, wise old owl. But he never lost his passion for the game. In fact, I think it increased more as the years went by. I think he appreciated things more, and was more thankful for all the game had given him.

He was a character in some ways. He was never wrong about anything – and I mean that in a humorous way. I think back to my first year covering the team, 1995-96, with a funny story, to me at least: I quoted him in the paper once, something about him saying the team needed to be better, that guys had to step up more, etc, etc. It kind of came out in print that he was ripping on teammates a little, and he denied saying the words. He said I misquoted him, and his teammates were all ripping on me the next day in the locker room – and this was after a practice at the old DU Arena.

Too bad for him I had the crude audiotape still – those big-box tape recorders back then – and clicked “play” on it when Claude Lemieux and some players demanded to hear the tape. Foote sheepishly walked away as the tape played, and everybody started giving him the business. It became a frequent inside joke over the next year. Foote learned to watch his words a little closer after that, but never lost his sense of humor over the incident. That’s what I liked about him – he took himself seriously, but not too serious to be a jerk.

– – – – – – – – – – –
Avs fans should tune in to Versus at 6 p.m. Tuesday night (not 6 a.m. like I wrote earlier). That’s when the NHL’s draft order will be determined, via the weighted lottery. Avs have 98.5 percent chance of getting two of the top 11 picks. They could still get the No. 1 pick. Odds favor Edmonton getting the No. 1, but it could happen for the Avs.

– – – – – – – – – – – – –
I tried to talk to Peter Mueller after the game, but he wasn’t available. Will he be back for training camp next fall? I think he will. But is it for certain, even at this date? No.

– – – – – – – – – – – – –
Former Avs I’m happy for as the playoffs begin:
– Jose Theodore, for spoiling Dallas’ hopes today. The Stars didn’t deserve it. They barely beat a horrible Avs team in two games before today, and choked when it mattered most. Andrew Brunette added two assists too.
– Teemu Selanne, for an incredible second half with Anaheim.
– Chris Drury, with a huge goal Saturday that helped the Rangers get in the playoffs.
– Cody McCormick, who played a solid role with Buffalo this year and now gets to play in the postseason.
– Johnny Boychuk, who had a fine season as a D-man in Boston.

– – – – – – – – – –
Milan Hejduk officially said he wants to come back for another year with the Avs. The team will re-sign him, I’m 100 percent confident.
– – – – – – – – – – –
Thanks for reading through all 82 games everyone. We’ll be blogging as much as ever through the off-season, though. Plenty of stuff still to come.

DALLAS – Marc Crawford here, talking about the career of Adam Foote, who will announce his retirement Friday morning. Toronto Maple Leaf fans might be interested in what Crawford has to say about 1:45 into this:

This season went way too fast. Can we all agree? I know, it’s seemed like torture of late, but it’s hard for me, at least, to believe the season is all done this coming Sunday.
For the next FIVE months, there will be no hockey in Denver. The off-seasons used to last three months around here. It’s going to take some time to digest what really happened here this season. The Avs went from “the new model of how a team should be rebuilt” to “An absolute disaster” in the process of about three months.
I think back to nights earlier in the season, when the Avs beat the Rangers twice. They outscored the Blueshirts 8-2 in the games, with Craig Anderson and Chris Stewart two of the best players on the ice for the Avs. I remember John Tortorella essentially saying, “We couldn’t play with those guys” after the games.
Now, of course, Anderson and Stewart are on different teams and the Rangers are going to the playoffs. The lesson, as always: things can change quick in pro sports. But, wow, what a swing this year for the Colorado Avalanche.

– – – – – – – – –
The Avs are in St. Louis Tuesday night, and speaking of Chris Stewart, he’s on Twitter now. Follow him here.
Stewart has 14 goals and 22 points in 23 games for the Blues since leaving Colorado. Kevin Shattenkirk has 14 points in 23 games for the Blues since the trade. I’ll stop now. Oh, maybe one more thing: that’s 36 points between two former Avs since the trade. The entire Avs team, since the trade, has 45 goals in their 20 games.
– – – – – – – – – – – –
I’ll be interested to see how Erik Johnson does next year. I sense a guy who is really going to pay the price this summer with his conditioning and want to have the year of his career. Don’t forget, he had a really bad knee injury two years ago. Some people believe it takes about that long to fully overcome its effects.
– – – – – – – – – –Here’s a pretty sad story, involving former Av and good guy Kurt Sauer.
— – – – – – – – —

I thought this was a pretty smart take on the matter by Greg Wyshynski, on the Chris Botta-NHL writers’ threatened boycott affair. I don’t know all the inside details of L’affaire Botta actually, but the one thing I’ll say is: if any team wants to yank the credentials of writers critical of them, then it’s the writers’ right to retaliate. (And good luck to teams who think they’d gain more fans if only they could control their message with no critical, independent assessment, i.e. sportswriters like us. They’d find that fans would leave in droves).
Giving credit where it’s due: as sarcastic and critical as I’ve been covering the Avs at times over 16 years, the team never once threatened to ban me from the locker room. Yeah, they’ve loudly let me know many, many times they didn’t like something I wrote, but never tried to play that card, as the Islanders did.
Our own Terry Frei wrote the eloquent, official PWHA response to the matter.
– – – – – – – – – – –
Five quick predictions about the Avs for the next 6-12 months, every one of which could end up wrong:
1. Tomas Fleischmann won’t be back with the Avs.
2. Tomas Vokoun will sign with the Avs.
3. Stefan Elliott will post 35 points next year – for the Avs.
4. Gabriel Landeskog will be drafted by the Avs.
5. Peter Forsberg’s number will be retired on opening night next year.

As you can probably tell, we didn’t travel with the Avs on this road trip – this is what happens with teams who lose 20 of 21 games – but we will again after this Canadian swing (late-starting games also don’t help the cause sometimes in decisions such as these).

Anywho, x-rays on Erik Johnson’s left leg/ankle proved negative. Nothing broken, just a bad bruise sounds like. I don’t know for sure if he’s in tomorrow or not against Edmonton in the NHL’s version of the Toilet Bowl, but we’ll certainly use every means of electronic communication to keep you abreast.
*Update: thanks to the miracle of modern technology, I bring you the updated news on Johnson: he is likely to play Saturday against the Oil.

What can you say, other than that the Avs are just a dreadful hockey club right now. As blogger Jibblescribbits pointed out on Twitter last night, the Burgundy and Blew have only beaten one hockey club – St. Louis, twice – in the last 59 calendar days.

I’m starting to hear from a lot of fans who are getting a little tired of the Avs’ excuse mechanisms after losses now. Tired of the “Well, we played a real competitive first period there” kind of moral victory schlomola from the coach and some players now after another loss.

There are no moral victories in the pro ranks, lest anybody with the Avs has forgotten. People might have wanted to play you a violin for a while over all the injuries and bad luck, but the violin is back in its case in the closet now. This is ridiculous now. The Avs are still employing grown, athletic men, paying them hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars largely funded by YOU, to go out and COMPETE.
The team I saw for most of Thursday’s dreadful performance in Calgary on the tube did not compete at all. Just went through the motions, period. I’m not saying every single guy in that locker room just quit – because I know they didn’t.

But some sure looked like they have quit on the year already, and they should either be benched right now or just released if they don’t want to play.

If the cliche is true, that these games are still important because “guys are playing for jobs for next year”, then I think several of them have lost their jobs for next year. Or at least they should. Time is running out to prove otherwise.

By the way, here is how former NHL GM Craig Button, now a TV analyst, sizes up the top five prospects in the coming NHL draft. You might be surprised to see that neither Larsson nor Landeskog is his top pick.

With news from the mothership tonight about Adam Foote, let’s get an early poll going for who the next Avalanche captain should be.

My candidates:
John Liles – He comes to play every single night, he cares and he’s been with the team longer than anyone except Milan Hejduk. He’s accountable in the locker room with the media, win or lose, and that counts a lot in my biased book. Chances of getting captaincy: 45 percent

Paul Stastny – Been the No. 1 center for about three years now, and he makes the most money on the team. Not a vocal leader, but he does play hard and plays hurt. Still, I want more of a vocal guy as a captain in the dressing room I think. Chances of getting captaincy: 30 percent

Milan Hejduk – He’s definitely worthy of being a captain in my book. He’s professional, classy and cares. But I don’t think he wants the C. I think he’s more comfortable with the A, mostly because of his quiet nature.
Chances of getting captaincy: 10 percent

Matt Duchene – Probably too young still, but he’s the type of guy who’d want this responsibility at some point, and he is already one of the team’s most important players. I can see him being a captain, but probably not just yet. Chances of getting captaincy: 10 percent

Erik Johnson – Could be the darkhorse who wins this thing, but we’ll see. He’s only been with the team a few weeks. Hard to see him getting it over someone like Liles, but maybe the Avs front office would want to make him feel like “The Man” around here by giving him the C? Chances of getting captaincy: 5 percent

It officially is at the “this is ridiculous” stage. Seventeen out of eighteen games lost now, and now injuries to Paul Stastny (back) and Milan Hejduk (shoulder) in tonight’s setback to the Ducks.
The Avalanche is officially Old Yeller, and anybody who saw that movie knows how it ended (man, did I cry my eyes out as a kid after seeing that film). The poor old dog has been bitten by rabies after defending the family and….I’m tearing up here.

But let’s not feel pity for ourselves, o ye faithful followers of these metal-footed men all these years. Let’s remember the good people of Quebec here: hard-core Canadian fans of only team in town loses team to moneyed American interests in a whirlwind coup, and watches beloved former team they struggled with all those years win Stanley Cup in first year in new American city in brand new uniform.

Is this finally the Karma of Quebec coming back to this franchise? Put your feet in the shoes of those real people in Quebec here, if this is what’s needed to bring you out of your depressed funk over this sorry team now.

Fact is, the good people of Denver had it better than they ever really could have expected for about 10 years or so, then went through some ups and downs after that and now are experiencing not just a down time but a bottom-of-the-deepest-of-barrels down.

A few things:
– Tonight’s game was a classic case of a team just waiting for something bad to happen, then falling apart when it got what it had been waiting for. The Avs played a tremendous, spirited first period, but came out on their heels in the second, saw a goal go right in the net in the first minute and then just started flailing away the rest of the night.
David Jones did tie the game up 2-2, but on the next shift Matt Duchene (who was terrible tonight and looks like he’s someone feeling sorry for himself when he shouldn’t) got knocked off the puck by Ryan Getzlaf along the boards in the defensive zone and a couple of seconds later Corey Perry beat Brian Elliott with a shot from about 30 feet to make it a 3-2 game.

– Ryan O’Reilly cost his team big by missing way wide on a short-side shot on a 2-on-1 in a 4-on-4 situation, forcing the puck around the dasher and onto the sticks of Ducks depth forwards who put home their own 2-on-1 in short order on the hapless Elliott.

– The Avs quit after it was 4-2. They went through the motions in the third period, but they quit in the final 10 minutes or so and just looked like a team feeling sorry for itself. As I said, fans shouldn’t feel sorry for themselves – but they are given more latitude if they do, since they’re not being, you know, paid millions of dollars to play hockey.
The ones playing hockey should never, ever look like they’re feeling sorry for themselves, but that’s how they looked in the third period. They just quit. They just waited for the clock to run out in the final minutes, and so it did with the scoreboard reading Ducks 6, Avs 2.

– On a positive note, Erik Johnson was terrific. I don’t care that he was a minus-2, he was terrific in the game and really made some dazzling moves with the puck. He showed a little flip-the-puck-ahead-a-couple-of-feet move a couple of times to get by defenders and create point-blank scoring chances for himself, and could have had another couple of assists than just the one he got if anybody on this team could finish anymore. Yeah, I’d like to see Johnson play a little meaner and tougher maybe and just use his big body more in front of the net defensively instead of just playing with his stick so much, but he makes just a lot of little seemingly simple but actually very difficult plays with the puck. As Joe Sacco said earlier this morning, Johnson just needs to play with the confidence that he seems to know he has. I think he does play with confidence, but what Sacco means is he has to play with other players who also play with confidence to where it bring his true confidence out better. It’s getting late, so maybe I should just end with that very confident sentence.

Hang in there, folks. It’s not so bad. We now get the drama of “Will they get the No. 1 pick?” and we all know better days will be ahead.
They can’t get much worse can they? Well, yeah, they can. Ask the folks in Quebec sometime.

A couple of links:
– My SI.com profile of GM Jay Feaster and the Calgary Flames. Feaster used to be connected with the Avalanche organ-I-zation, back when he was GM of the Hershey Bears, the team once coached by Bob Hartley. He’s an interesting story, and I hope you give it a click.

– I give you one of the more ridiculous stories in the Canadian press in the overreaction of the Zdeno Chara hit.
It’s been taken to absurd lengths in some corners in Canada, including “Hope this gets us on the tee-vee” 911 calls from Montreal natives to the cops about the hit. Disagree all you want about the decision not to suspend Chara, but calling in the cops over a hockey hit in a hockey game is beneath the dignity of the citizens of the city in which the game was founded.

I’m sitting here watching a documentary on Vince Lombardi, whose most famous quote of course was “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”
We’ve only associated the word “winning” with “Colorado Avalanche” once in the last 16 games now. Charlie Sheen has been more associated with “winning” of late than these guys, an insult I would scarcely try to top.

Joe Sacco spoke after the game of his young players have little confidence right now – and don’t forget the Avs are tied with Toronto for the second-youngest team in the league, at about 26 years of age, just behind St. Louis. I’m wondering if Sacco is including Matt Duchene in those thoughts, as the 20-year-old now has one goal in his last 13 games.

Duchene just seems a bit dejected out there. Seems like it’s affecting his play. Paul Stastny doesn’t seem like himself right now either.
Then again, nobody does. It’s a totally dispirited team right now, one that just doesn’t trust itself. We all know the injuries are a factor in the team’s fall, but not this much.

It’s just bad right now. It was worse tonight because the Avs’ big acquisition, Erik Johnson, had a minus-2 night and just wasn’t very good throughout. Johnson, from what I’ve seen, has talent and I think he’ll play well on good teams. But I’m not sold yet that he’s a leader type who can lead the way out of the abyss. He seemed just like an ordinary guy out there tonight, which had to be scary to the Avs brass watching up in the suite.

Brian Elliott? Hard to believe a team like Edmonton, missing guys like Taylor Hall and Ales Hemsky, could make it look so easy against him, but they did.

Sacco is trying some new things, such as moving Stastny onto a wing with Duchene – and occasionally vice-versa – but nothing is happening. There’s still more than a MONTH to go on the season. This team had better start competing a little harder, at least, or there might start to be renewed questions about peoples’ job security around here. As far as I know, Sacco is definitely coming back for his third year on his contract. But, geez, what if the Avs don’t win again the whole year? Hey, they’ve got only 17 games left, and won one of the last 16. Losing 32 of the last 33 would be a bit tougher to sell to the public that Sacco deserves another year, yeah?

ANAHEIM – It hit me a little tonight, standing in the middle of the Avalanche dressing room at the Honda Center. Lots of little memories started coming back, a little scrapbook of the mind about all the people over the years I’ve talked to who have represented the Avalanche in that space. Lots of stuff.

I remember going through a tough time personally in 1998 right in that room, a time when I was going through a divorce and the last place I really wanted to be was there. The night before, I remember looking out my very high-level hotel room down on the ground below and thinking, “what if….”. That’s how bad it was. I felt all alone in the world, totally scared. Luckily, I called a friend and he helped get me through the night. Yet even during that wrenching time, I remember being in that locker room and realizing that I still had a pretty cool job and that this was really a pretty cool place to be, and how it helped get me through that night too. I remember Keith Jones, recognizing I was not quite myself, asking me if anything was wrong and me telling him a few of my troubles, and him giving me a supportive voice – something I’ve never forgotten.

I remembered how Patrick Roy used to be in the same locker Brian Elliott was tonight. I remembered Joe Sakic used to be in the one off to the left of that, and of Cody McLeod one giving former radio man Norm Jones some good-natured grief about maybe wanting another of the free sandwiches after a practice one day (“Get another one in ya”, he said).

I’d probably been in that locker room 40 or 50 times by then, but tonight had some poignancy to it for me. I realized it was the last time I might be seeing some of the guys in the room.

One of them, I fear is, John Liles – whose name is definitely in play as a potential trade target around the NHL as Monday’s deadline approaches.

This was Liles, well after the game, when most teammates were already getting dressed from tonight’s loss: slumped back in his chair, his chin propped up by his left hand, lost in thought. A guy who seemed to have be elsewhere mentally and, frankly, depressed, despite having one of the coolest jobs in the world. I could relate, though our paychecks were always different. But money comes in a poor second place to peace of mind.

My strong hunch is that Liles will be traded, but I definitely hope I’m wrong. I want to be wrong here. He’s a quality guy, a stand-up guy, and you would think the Avs would want to keep a guy like that around.

But nothing at all can be guaranteed on a team that has lost 13 of 14 games now, that won’t make the playoffs for the second time in three years and has given up three or more goals an astounding 18 straight games now.

Changes will keep needing to be made, and Liles makes a lot of money. Thing is, the Avs can very much afford that money, and if they get rid of him, they are going to need to get some payroll back just to stay at the cap floor minimum. Why get rid of them then, when it’s not really a money issue at all?

I don’t know. I can never quite figure out the thinking that goes on in NHL front offices. There seems to be this feeling that the Avs HAVE to do something more by today, when the fact is this season is already lost and they could always make some trades this summer.

Yet, there are some teams that may panic themselves, feeling that a guy like Liles might be just the thing needed for a Stanley Cup run. That’s, I’m sure, what the Avs are hoping for.

The reason why there have been no trades the last few days by the Avs is: the entire management staff (except for Pierre Lacroix, who I haven’t seen around the team on this road trip) wanted to see the first couple of games on this trip and really take a good, hard look at everybody on the ice.

Now, it’s decision time. Time to weigh any offers on the table and make the decisions by 1 p.m. today.

I hope Liles isn’t on the “Send him packing” list. I’ll never forget that forlorn look on his face tonight in that locker room. As bad as he probably felt tonight, I can personally vouch to him and the Avalanche: it’ll get better. I remarried 10 years ago and have an adorable young boy now. You’ll all have a better memory in that room some night.

ANAHEIM – I’ve been asked a lot about the Avs maybe trading Adam Foote by tomorrow’s deadline, as rental to some contender. It won’t happen.
Foote will not be traded, period. This is likely to be his last year, and if it is, he’ll retire an Av.

Moving on, of the many intriguing rumors I’ve heard lately, one involving Chicago taking a look at a “young, defensive-minded center” has, I believe, some weight to it. Chicago scout Barry Smith was at the game yesterday – you remember Smith, right, the longtime Detroit assistant coach to Scotty Bowman – watching the game intently.

If Ryan O’Reilly is the guy they want, the Avs darn well better make sure they get something rock-solid in return. I do NOT believe the Avs should trade Ryan O’Reilly, at ALL. I know his numbers haven’t been great, but the Avs need to keep guys like him around, guys who bust their tail every second and really want to win.

Of course, Jay McClement is another fairly young, defensive-minded center. It’s possible the Avs could flip him to another team I suppose. Remember, last week I wrote about the Avs having five centers and the likelihood of one going, which I put at 50-50.

But as far as O’Reilly goes, I wouldn’t deal him. Certainly not for any marginal player, or a draft pick. Not at this stage. It’d be a panicky move. I want O’Reilly on my team as part of the group that will get the Avs out of this mess some day.

By the way, I’d put the odds of Paul Stastny being traded at zero now. I think there was some kicking of tires, but it’s not going to happen.

John Liles? Can’t close the book on those rumors just yet. Things could go either way.

LOS ANGELES – Every added loss to the Avalanche’s season, the better their draft position is going to be this June. Really, that’s all there is to look forward to before next season starts. It’s 2009 all over again.

Whether the Avs can pluck another Matt Duchene, we’ll see. All I know is I have to start calling a lot of amateur scouts soon, to get a better handle on the upcoming draft. It’s supposed to be a good draft (they always say that though), and the more the Avs keep losing, the better player they’re likely to get.

So today was a win then, right?

About the game today: just another thoroughly awful start to one, just a robotic, lifeless team through 40 minutes. No passion, no spirit, no toughness, no nothin’. The Kings relaxed at the end and the Avs nearly pulled out a tie game, but no.

The Avs just took one stupid penalty after another, though I do think they also were the victim of some bad calls early on. The Kings got two 5-on-3s and the Avs killed them both – and still lost. That almost never happens. But to this team right now, it does. Read more…

NASHVILLE – First off, I want to thank Buddy Oakes for giving me a ride back to my hotel tonight, and sparing me from another possibly unhappy cab-riding experience like the two previous ones of the day. Here’s a teeny suggestion I have for the nation’s cabbies: don’t have “Credit cards accepted” on the sides of your cars, then act like you’ve just been told you have two weeks to live when someone hands you a credit card for payment.

Buddy, for those of you unaware, runs the best blog out there on the Nashville Predators. Click on it here to find out that I’m not making this up, and to get the Nashville take on tonight’s Avs’ loss here.

OK, on to business: I’m not a major second-guessing-of-the-coach kind of guy. I tend to be harder on the actual players on the ice, and those in management who make the final decisions on what players are on their team. Coaches, to me, are guys who get too much credit when things go well for their team, and too much blame when things go bad.

ST. PAUL, MINN – When a team starts reaching for “positives we can take” from a fifth straight loss, you know the end is near for that particular team. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet the 2010-11 Colorado Avalanche.

The Avalanche lost again tonight, a 3-2 game to Minnesota, and while it was a one-goal game, all right, it didn’t really seem like it, now did it? Let’s face facts here: the Avs never really seemed to have any chance at winning this game. Any time the game got competitive and the Avs DID have chances to get into the game, something bad happened and everything went back to what seemed like a square-one situation.

The Avs simply can’t build on anything right now. They can’t build on a goal they score, they can’t build on a good save they make, they can’t build on a good defensive play they might occasionally make, they can’t build on a good shift they have and it all adds up to not being able to build enough to win a single game right now. Bad teams are ones that can’t string anything together, and the Avs are very much a bad hockey team right now. You know it, and I know it, and the players know it and the coaches know it and management knows it.

But does Foppa want to rescind that?
I know Peter Forsberg has said it doesn’t matter how the team is doing, that he wants to play with the Avs and the Avs only. But, boy, it makes you wonder if the team he’s seeing every night is one he really would want to play for.

The Avs are playing some of the worst hockey I’ve ever seen this team play. So the fact that Forsberg, as I learned today, has a no-trade, no-movement clause is interesting. I went over this theory before, and while I think it’s unlikely, it’s intriguing.

Maybe Forsberg could be the trade bait the Avs could use at the Feb. 28 deadline. Maybe the Avs are so far out of it at that point, and maybe Foppa is playing well regardless, to the point where he goes to management and says “You know what, if you want to deal me to a contender, a team that I wouldn’t mind playing for, see if you can get a good price for me. That way, I get to go play more hockey beyond April and you guys can use whatever you get in trade to rebuild this crumbling team again.”

I’d say it’s unlikely, but nothing would shock me. That’s exactly how Philadelphia helped rebuild itself at the deadline in 2007, when they traded Forsberg to Nashville for a package of young players and draft picks.

That’s still three weeks away, and Forsberg has to prove himself on the ice again. But the way this team is playing right now, the playoffs seem like a joke.
Cue up Jim Mora, please:

The Avs are in full, team-wide meltdown mode right now. Let’s not let anybody put a happy face on this thing – it’s a disaster right now with the Colorado Avalanche.
They can’t score a goal. They can’t ever keep a team ever to under three goals. Their defense is awful. The goaltending has gone bust. They are pathetically easy to play against, physically. A bunch of their bright young forwards look like they’ve lost all their confidence. Joe Sacco is yanking guys in and out of the lineup, yanking guys in and out of Lake Erie, and nothing is working.

They had a good thing going here, but something got messed up. Injuries have played a role, of course, but that excuse is getting old.

OK, hear me out on a couple things that were talked about around the water cooler today with some of my people:

They concern Peter Forsberg of course. Duh.

– What about this scenario: The Avs sign Foppa, he plays, and plays well. But the Avs don’t win enough games. They fall out of playoff contention.

Solution?

DEAL FOPPA AT THE DEADLINE! … We know he’s not going to want to play here if the Avs are out of the playoff picture in another month (the NHL trade deadline is Feb. 28). The Avs aren’t going to care who’s in their lineup if they’re 10 points out of a spot by then (it could happen, the way they’re playing).
So why not deal Foppa to a contender (it won’t be Detroit, don’t worry. Forsberg has told close friends and relatives he’d never play for the Red Wings. The rivalry still lives, people).

Brandon Yip is back in the lineup tonight. That qualified as the big news from the morning skate today. Yip will play and Kevin Porter – he of the minus-4, no-shot showing in 10 minutes the other day against Boston – will sit.

How did Peter Forsberg look at the morning skate, you ask? Fine. Just fine. Foppa is taking a break from the media today, however, so we’ll have to wait until after tomorrow’s planned practice how he’s feeling out there. But he looked good out there I thought again, zig-zagging around the ice and making some nice passes, etc.
For the record, he will not play tonight and has yet to sign a contract.

Joe Sacco said he will play six D tonight, but hasn’t decided whom to sit yet.

I saw Peter Mueller walking around after practice. Still nothing really new to say on him though. Avs just issue a “there’s no further update” proclamation every time I ask about him, and he has still yet to skate with the team since September. For the record, Mueller’s hair is really long again. He seemed in a good mood, but is strictly forbidden from talking to us ink-stained wretches while he’s injured.

Gonna try to keep this one short, because I’m more fried than a chicken wing at a supermarket deli right now, but wanted to weigh in a little more on this Forsberg fella before the weekend ends.
First off: there’s no question in my mind Forsberg is going to play again in the NHL, and 99.9 percent it’ll be for the Avs. I’m totally convinced of it now, after observing Foppa today and talking with plenty of people who know him well.

BUT…….let me put in the Mount Everest sized asterisk: there is never anything certain with Forsberg. There are always, always surprises. I say TODAY there is no question in my mind he’ll play. But I’ve covered this guy far too long to think it all can’t change in a heartbeat.

A quiet day at Avs headquarters, save for the news that Kyle Cumiskey will return to the lineup tomorrow night against Nashville.

Coach Joe Sacco said he will play Cumiskey, out since Oct. 30 with a concussion, against Nashville. He said he hadn’t decided who — if anyone — might come out of the lineup to make room for Cumiskey. Sacco was talking for a while after practice with Adam Foote, but that could have been over just about anything.

A handful of guys were given the day off, as “maintenance” days, including Milan Hejduk and Tomas Fleischmann. Flash has been battling a pretty bad cold of late, for one thing.

Craig Anderson in goal for the Burgundy and Blue, for the third straight start. I’ll have a story in print tomorrow about a couple of things Andy has done to help get his game back on track.

**An interview Matt Duchene did with Puck Daddy, where something I wrote got mentioned and was twisted around a bit. Perhaps I didn’t write it clearly or well enough, but I never said there was bad chemistry in the Avs’ dressing room or that it was divided at all. Was trying to say what Dutchy pretty much said, which is that all the injuries and new faces created kind of a “who are you again?” type of atmosphere in the room that can make it tough for a real team unit to jell. The returns of Chris Stewart and Cody McLeod have solved many of those issues since I believe. Both keep the room loose and make guys feel better, with their rugged presences.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.